Chapter 24

I fellout of the side of a hill and landed on something soft.

"Rrrrr?" Esme asked, her claws digging painfully into my shoulder.

"Ow." Lucy's voice came from underneath me. "Alice, move your damn elbow."

"Sorry." I rolled off Lucy and squinted in the bright light, trying to make out our surroundings.

Something heavy hit the ground on my right. Ronan grunted and cursed. Another thud, accompanied by a chuffing sound. I still couldn't see very well—why the hell was it so bright?—but my fingers encountered familiar thick fur. Daisy.

"Everyone okay?" Ronan asked.

"I think so." Blinking rapidly as my eyes adjusted, I sat up and rubbed my aching elbow. I'd banged it on a rock somewhere between the clearing topside and the strange blue-green grassy hillside on which we now sat. Other than that, I seemed unscathed, albeit a little dizzy and out of sorts.

To my surprise, Malcolm's trace still tingled in the corner of my mind. Our journey here hadn't broken our connection the way the trip through the mirror had broken my link to Sean. The familiar sensation was reassuring—not because he'd be able to help if we ran into trouble, but it let me know he was all right.

"Anyone else feel weird?" Lucy asked. "Like a lot of time has passed since we jumped?"

"Yeah." I started to rise, then thought better of it when my vision swam. "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel."

Ronan staggered to his feet and surveyed our surroundings. "I'm sick to my stomach, like I've fallen quite a distance, but I don't recall the fall itself."

"Me either," I said. "I jumped and then I came out of the side of that hill. I don't remember anything in between."

Lucy managed to stand up and offered me her hand. I let her help me up and steadied myself with one hand on Daisy's head. Ronan untied the rope around our waists, coiled it, and stowed it in his bag.

We stood near the edge of a grassy outcropping halfway up a mountainside, overlooking a wide valley that stretched all the way to the horizon. The view was almost disconcertingly like the world we'd left behind, except for the colors. Everything around us—the air, the grass, the trees, even the sky—were alien shades of green and blue. The sky was as bright as noon on a sunny day, though I saw nothing that resembled a sun. The air was cold, the wind full of unfamiliar smells. Below us in the valley, strange dark shapes moved through the trees. Enormous black winged creatures soared overhead.

With a start, I realized the magic here thrummed quietly like the magic of home instead of the intense searing sensation of the world above. The ambient power was far more stable, with none of the surges we'd experienced topside, and almost muted.

Tentatively, I spooled earth magic. To my relief, green magic coiled around my hands and arms. If I could use my magic here, that went a long way toward making me less apprehensive about what we might face.

Gradually my dizziness subsided, but the nausea didn't. My eyes strayed toward the rocky side of the mountain, where the doorway shimmered faintly in my Second Sight. I wanted to retreat through that door and make this sick, almost panicky feeling in my stomach go away.

"That's going to get worse, not better," Ronan said. He gestured at the hand I'd pressed to my abdomen. "Regardless of how many times you've died and been brought back, you're a living being in a world of the dead. You'll feel as though you don't belong here until you go back."

I swallowed hard. The discomfort was annoying but not debilitating—not yet. "Then let's get moving," I said. "Do you have any idea where we are and how to get to Edis from here?"

"Give me a moment." Ronan closed his eyes.

While he was getting his bearings, or whatever the hell he was doing, I checked on Daisy and Esme. Neither had any injuries from the journey that I could see.

My backpack had some light damage that indicated it had scraped along rocks or something similar, but its contents were fine. I checked over everything, drank from my water bottle, and took a moment to study the photo of Sean and me. I tucked it back into the little inside pocket and zipped it closed.

I'd stashed the obsidian rock in the bag for the journey, unwilling to risk it falling out of my pocket. I dug it out and crouched next to Daisy. "You brought us this far," I told her, holding out the rock on my palm. "Any chance you can use this to lead us to Mariela?"

"What's that?" Lucy asked. "Nasty vibes around that thing."

I explained how the rock had been stored with the scroll and soaked up its magic, and how Daisy had apparently been able to sense and follow the remaining trace.

Lucy squatted beside me and scratched Daisy's head. "You are one amazing wolf," she said. "So, how about it? Can you take us to Mariela and the scroll?"

Daisy backed up a few steps, turned to her left, then to her right, and let out a short whine. She chomped the air and looked up at Ronan, who hadn't moved or opened his eyes.

"I think this place is messing with her tracking," Lucy said as we rose. "My internal compass sure as hell is screwed up. Up feels like down, left feels like right…and that valley seems to be moving backward in time."

I stared out at the valley. When I tried to focus on its farthest point, the horizon moved farther away and the valley stretched with vertigo-inducing elasticity. I stumbled. "I see what you mean. Okay, no staring in that direction."

Ronan's voice startled me. "Move back from the edge of the platform."

That didn't make much sense, but Lucy and I took a half-dozen steps away from edge of the rocky outcropping. "What platform?" Lucy asked.

A pitch-black train rounded the side of the mountain from our right, moving with eerie silence. It glided to a stop in front of us, on a track that had not been there a heartbeat ago—a track that faded and disappeared twenty feet in front of the rather sinister-looking locomotive.

The train appeared solid and made of matte-black metal, but the bottom swished and swayed in a way that reminded me, oddly, of the hem of a black robe. I couldn't see any wheels, but there was a track, so maybe the wheels were hidden under the robe?

Or maybe I should stop trying to make things make sense.

"That," Lucy said, nonplussed, "is a train."

"Yes." Ronan put his bag back on his shoulders. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought he was fighting not to smile at Lucy's bafflement. Did he want her to stab him? "I enjoy train travel, though I don't get to indulge in it very often. Do you like the train, Alice?"

"I've never been on a train," I admitted. I stashed the stone in my pocket and put on my backpack. Esme switched to my left shoulder and resumed her growly purring. "Are we taking a train to Edis?"

"Did you think we'd have to walk all the way there?" He raised an eyebrow. "This is the Underworld, not The Lord of the Rings."

"Ass," I muttered. "Lucy, can I borrow your sword?"

Ronan was saved from certain death when a door on the side of the train that hadn't been visible a second before slid open soundlessly. The car's interior was matte black as well. From where I stood, I couldn't see anything inside but empty space.

I hadn't seen her draw it, but Lucy had her sword raised. Nothing emerged from the train, however.

"All aboard for Edis." Ronan bowed and gestured at the open door. "Ladies first."

Lucy studied our otherworldly transportation, her blade at the ready. "Give me one good reason to step foot on this train."

"I called in a favor, Lieutenant." Ronan's expression turned grim. "One I might need much more urgently in the future, so please don't spit in my face and refuse to get aboard. I give you my word this conveyance will deliver us safely to Edis."

After a hesitation, Lucy lowered her sword, but didn't put it away. "Fine." She got on the train.

Daisy and I followed her inside, with Esme purring on my shoulder and Ronan right behind us. The interior was as black as the exterior. The car was empty except for two rows of seats facing each other near the door. To my surprise, I could see outside the train, as if the walls and curved roof were glass, though from the outside it had all appeared to be solid metal.

Daisy prowled around the car as Ronan, Lucy, and I settled into the seats. He sat on one side and we sat on the other with our bags next to us. The door closed and the train accelerated smoothly. I heard no indication of an engine or the sound of wheels on the track, but we reached full speed in a matter of seconds. Given the surreal landscape and the vast distances between landmarks, I found it impossible to judge how fast we were moving, which was quite disconcerting.

As the train made its way along the mountains, away from the valley and toward a dark horizon, I asked, "Can I ask who's providing our transportation? Purely out of curiosity."

Ronan removed his jacket and sword, stretched out his legs, and relaxed. "He goes by many names. His true name is as old as the universe and isn't pronounceable in any human language. The Greeks called him Charon, though he's much more than just a ferryman. In some ways, he is the ferry."

I knew the name Charon from Greek mythology and art. My mind conjured up a painting I'd seen somewhere of a terrifying robed skeleton, ferrying the souls of the dead in a boat on the river Styx.

I recalled the robe-like edges of the train, and Ronan's words, and had a disturbing thought. "We aren't actually, like, inside him now, right?"

He thought about it. "Define ‘inside,'" he said.

Ick.

I'd eaten several protein bars and the last of the snacks I'd bought at the way station near Oakdale before going through the doorway, but my stomach growled. That meant either I was burning through calories even faster, or we'd lost some time during our journey to the Underworld. Or both.

My bag contained two boxes of protein bars and two bottles of water—my Hawthorne's bottle, plus another full bottle I bought after we left the motel. I'd left the half-empty bottle of Charles's finest Ronan had brought me in Lucy's jeep. I hoped we'd get to share a toast with its contents when we got back.

Daisy returned from her inspection of the car and settled on the floor at my feet, her back against my shins. Her body heat and warm golden magic eased some of my tension.

My stomach grumbled again. Ronan and Lucy exchanged a glance. "You should eat," Ronan said. "We'll be on the train for a while. Rest. You're well-guarded."

"Don't do that," I said.

"Do what?" Lucy asked with a frown.

"You know what. Treating me like I'm fragile. Don't do that."

"We're not treating you like you're fragile," she snapped. "You're hungry and tired. You're human. We don't expect you to have the same endurance. Don't make me knock that chip off your shoulder, woman."

Daisy let out a quiet growl. I wasn't sure if she was warning Lucy or echoing her sentiment.

I dug two protein bars out of my bag and tore the wrapper off the first one. "Sorry," I said finally. "I'm touchy about this whole…dying thing."

"Can't blame you." Lucy took a swig from her flask. "It doesn't help that someone threw it in your face earlier." She stared at Ronan. "Seriously, dick move, even for you."

He raised an eyebrow at her but said nothing.

"But thanks for the train," I added between bites of my protein bar. "This is a rather pleasant way to travel."

"If we ignore the fact we may or may not be inside someone," Lucy said.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Yes, ignoring that fact. Why a train, though?" I asked Ronan. "I thought Charon has a ferry—or is a ferry."

"Don't think so literally." He took out a cloth and little bottle of liquid and began polishing his sword. "Conveyances in the Underworld can take any number of forms and travel along an equally infinite number of routes. Very few know the ways, and even fewer can travel between realms—or care to. We could just as easily travel by boat, or carriage, or flight, but I prefer the train."

With my own meal finished, I opened a can of cat food for Esme. She climbed down off my shoulder to eat and then sat beside me on the seat to wash her face and head with dainty gray paws. I figured Daisy would be tided over for a while after eating Kyrios. She lay on the floor at my feet, her head on her paws. She seemed at ease, and that made me feel better.

Lucy took out her own sword-polishing kit and set to work. The others appeared lost in their own thoughts, so I turned and sat cross-legged, my elbow on the back of the seat and my chin in my hand. Esme curled up in my lap and closed her eyes for a catnap.

The train wound its way through the mountains, making its own track as it went and leaving no trace of its passage behind. We were not always on the ground; in fact, the farther we traveled, the more the train seemed to take to the air to cross over streams and valleys. I never got entirely comfortable, but after about an hour of smooth sailing I relaxed enough to half-doze as I gazed out the window.

We passed forests and plains, farms and well-tended fields, and even villages and a few small cities. Creatures of various shapes and sizes roamed the grasslands and forests, but none came near enough to the train for me to see them well. The view was surprisingly bucolic.

Ronan's voice startled me out of my reverie. "Many people think of the Underworld in terms of Hell. Hell is something else entirely. We are not in Hell. Some regions of the Underworld are quite hellish, but most are like this one. A few are beautiful beyond imagining—much closer to what you might think of as Heaven than Hell."

"This area is certainly peaceful." I rubbed the silky fur behind Esme's ears. "It's like a continuation of the lives these people lived topside."

"An apt description of this area." Ronan glanced out the window. "We're about to cross into another realm. There might be some bumps."

The bright blue-green light outside darkened abruptly and took on an ominous red-and-purple tone. The train jolted hard and bounced like an airplane in turbulent air. I gripped the edge of my seat, for all the good that would do if we dropped out of the sky.

The train jostled a few more times and swayed sickeningly like a tram in the wind. Finally, the ride smoothed out again. I let out a breath and released my death grip on the seat.

The view outside the window had changed completely. Instead of fields of grain, farms, and cities, the train crossed a flat plain of ash. Behind us, the mountains we'd traversed grew smaller and more distant with each passing moment. The sky was streaked with orange and yellow, as if this realm existed in perpetual twilight. The juxtaposition with the bright mountains and valleys of the realm where we'd arrived was jarring.

When I looked more closely, I noticed trails in the ash, crisscrossing the plain in irregular intervals. Strange dark shapes trudged along the paths. On my side of the train, in the distance, I spotted what might have been a village of a dozen squat buildings. Who or what could exist in such an environment, I had no idea.

Our trip across the ash plain seemed to last for most of a day, though it was probably no longer than the journey through the mountains. Daisy prowled the train car for the entire time, growling at anyone who tried to speak to her. Esme, on the other hand, slept soundly, nestled in my lap.

The nausea that had plagued me since I arrived in the Underworld came and went in waves. When I could, I nibbled on protein bars and sipped water. Once we reached Edis and began our search for the Furies, I might not get much chance to eat.

Ronan finished polishing his sword and moved on to cleaning the knives hidden in his clothing. Lucy cleaned her own knives and checked her gun. Not to be outdone, Daisy yawned and showed all her teeth.

"Do you know much about the Furies?" I asked Ronan. "I read up on the myths—the Greek version, anyway—but how much of that is true?"

"Some of it's true, or close to the truth." He studied a blade, frowned, and went back to cleaning it. "They are very, very old. One myth says they were three daughters of Gaia, born from drops of blood that fell to earth. Another says they emerged from Chaos and Old Night. Both of those stories are beautiful in their own way, and both have elements of truth, but in reality they were archangels once."

"Angels?" Lucy echoed. "Actual angels?"

"Archangels." Ronan didn't look up from his work. "With great wings and swords and celestial power. Like all archangels, they were mighty and terrible warriors. Under the archangel Michael's command, they fought and defeated the darkest forces in existence when the universe was young. As the eons passed, some of their most beloved brothers and sisters died in battle. Angry, hurt, and bitter, they became vengeance incarnate—so much so that they defied orders and unleashed great calamities. They were cast from Heaven and fell bloodied to the earth. They made their home in the Underworld, living either in the Darkness or on its borders, and cut all ties to their sisters and brothers in Heaven, as most of the Fallen do."

"Are there many Fallen?" I asked.

"Not many." Finally satisfied with the gleaming blade, Ronan slipped it into a sheath on his thigh. "A few walk the earth. Others prefer the Underworld. I've heard rumors of one or two who have traveled to other realms entirely, but those are just rumors."

"So the Furies were cast from Heaven and became chthonic deities." I ate the last few bites of a protein bar. "Good to know being an infernal goddess is a step down from being an archangel."

He raised a shoulder in a half shrug. "They aren't goddesses by the strictest definition of the word, though that's how humans categorize beings of great power. They are capable of unleashing terrible retribution and death, though I haven't heard of them doing so for a long time. They prefer a quiet life down here. Humans ceased to be more than an irritation for them long ago."

Thunder rumbled. I expected to see storm clouds, but the sky remained red and orange and cloudless.

Ronan glanced out the window. "We're nearing the edge of this realm. And if I'm not mistaken, the next realm is where we will find Edis."

"If Mariela had to get to Edis too, how did she get there?" I asked. "I'm assuming Charon didn't owe her any favors."

"As I mentioned, there are other forms of conveyance here, though none are as fast or safe as ours." He took a drink from his flask and tucked it back into his inner jacket pocket. "My hope is we've gained some ground on your target—maybe even beaten her to Edis. If we can reach the Erinyes before her, the likelihood of your success increases dramatically."

I wondered if Torryn had told him of her prophecy that I wouldn't succeed in my goals of preventing Mariela from unleashing the Furies, reclaiming the scroll, or bringing Mariela back to face justice. I still intended to do all those things, because prophecies were far from set in stone, and because no way in hell would I accept that Malcolm and I wouldn't get home. No matter what happened down here, I would never accept that fate. I'd fight to get back home to Sean and my life until the end.

Without warning, the train suddenly plunged into total darkness. We jolted, bounced, and shuddered violently again, as with our previous passage between realms. I left one hand on Esme's soft fur and gripped my seat with the other.

A ball of silver-blue light formed across from us. Ronan held up his hand and the light brightened enough for us to see. To my surprise and horror, solid rock zipped by outside the train as if we were passing underground or through a mountain via a very long, very narrow tunnel. In fact, there didn't seem to be any tunnel per se—just the train going through the rock. My mouth suddenly became very dry.

The ball of light brightened, revealing a tall figure in a hooded black robe looming at the front of the car.

I gasped. My earth magic whip spiraled out of my hand. Esme arched her back and hissed. Daisy leaped in front of me and snarled. Lucy jumped up, sword raised.

Ronan, however, stayed in his seat, his legs stretched out. "Hello, old friend," he said with a nod. "Our deepest thanks for the transportation."

"I did not expect to see you again so soon, Ronan." Charon's voice was deep and resonant with old, old magic. The hood of his robe hid his face.

Ronan stood. He was very tall, but Charon was even taller. "We're near Edis, I presume? This darkness seems familiar."

"Quite close. We have only to cross the plains beyond these mountains." Charon glided forward. "You will not be welcome in the city. She has placed a bounty on your head."

Ronan sighed. "So I heard. A couple of hunters with lots of blades but no brains even tried to collect it."

Lucy chuckled. "The bounty hunter has a bounty on his own head? That's delightful. Who did you piss off, Ronan?"

He ignored her. "Will you take us through the gate?"

"I cannot," Charon said. "I do not believe the guards would grant you passage. Instead, I will deliver you and your companions to a place in the wall where you may find a way in." His head moved slightly, still hidden by the hood. I caught a glint of something under the hood, like the shimmer of magic in dark eyes. I got the impression he was studying the rest of us. "I have heard a rumor of another mortal, seen near Edis in recent days."

Damn it. "Did she get inside the city?" I asked, before I remembered I was addressing a being possibly as old as the universe. "Sir," I amended.

Charon said nothing for a long moment, during which I tried to imagine what he was thinking of me and my impudence. "I do not know," he said finally. "I have sensed great and old powers rising. Many are disturbed by these events. Such darkness has not walked these lands for some time."

Well, crap. That didn't sound good.

"This other mortal may attempt to unleash the Erinyes," Ronan said.

"That would be most inadvisable," Charon replied. "And very difficult to accomplish. They are ministers of justice, and have served in that capacity for a very long time. For them to take up their swords again would require most extraordinary circumstances, or very powerful magic."

His words elicited a rollercoaster of emotions—among them, hope. If the Furies were in semi-retirement, that meant Mariela wouldn't have an easy time invoking them. I doubted she could wield the kind of magic Charon deemed very powerful.

Ronan clearly didn't share my optimism. "If she succeeds, though, can the Furies be prevented from leaving Edis? Or this realm?"

"I do not believe anyone has ever attempted to do so," Charon told us. "I would not say it was impossible, but I know of little that could stop them. The better option would be to prevent this other mortal from reaching them."

"That's what we're trying to do." Ronan gave Charon a small bow. "Again, our thanks."

"I settle my debts." Charon inclined his head slightly. "Speaking of debts, do you continue to ignore messages sent by your brothers and sisters?"

Ronan went preternaturally still. "I've had no messages for a very long time." His tone was icy. "I'm sure I've been forgotten. I'd prefer it that way."

"You were never forgotten," Charon said. His robe fluttered, as if he'd started to raise his hand but reconsidered. "When the next message arrives, pay heed to it."

Before Ronan could respond, the train jolted, throwing us all off balance. Ronan's ball of light went out. When he rekindled the light, Charon was gone.

"People come and go so quickly here," I quipped. No one laughed, or possibly neither got the reference. Malcolm would have laughed. I missed my ghost.

We emerged from the tunnel onto a vast lava field. The air shimmered with the intense heat radiating from the rivers of molten rock. The train traveled well above the lava, and for once I was grateful we weren't on the ground.

Tall pathways made of stone crisscrossed the lava, much like the trails through the ash in the previous realm. Though we couldn't feel the heat, the way the air wavered indicated just how hot it was outside. How Mariela could possibly have crossed this plain on foot, or in anything but Charon's ferry, was a total mystery.

As far as I could tell, we'd traveled in a straight line since leaving the mountains behind. As we reached the middle of the lava field, however, the train banked sharply, and I saw what waited ahead of us.

"Oh, holy wow," I breathed.

Across the lava field, a great walled city stretched almost from horizon to horizon. The lava rivers stopped well short of the wall, forming a kind of steep, rocky beach. Enormous fires burned along the top of the wall, providing light all along its forbidding perimeter.

Beyond the city loomed absolute inky darkness. I recalled Ronan's description of Edis: a city on the edge, the gateway to the deepest parts of the Underworld and home to a number of very scary things. Given it lay in an infernal region of the Underworld, I'd pictured a burning city in ruins, but it wasn't—far from it. The city was magnificent, with soaring towers visible above the walls and enormous gates.

Something moved along the top of the wall near the largest gate: a dragon so huge it made the creature Lucy had wounded look like a house cat. It stretched wings the size of a jumbo jet's and settled on the wall, keeping watch over the lava plain.

Esme climbed onto my shoulder and hissed in the direction of the dragon. "You would not even be a snack for that thing," I told her. "Let's not pick a fight with it, okay?"

She gave me a disdainful look and licked her paw.

"Edis is enormous," Lucy said, standing with her knee on the seat for balance as the train banked again. "How will we find the Erinyes?"

"Charon said the sisters serve as ministers of justice. We'll start at the city's Great Hall, or the bar closest to it." Ronan picked up a stack of clothing from the seat next to him—a stack that hadn't been there a moment ago. He handed us each a pair of pants, a tunic shirt, and a hooded robe. "It will be damn near impossible for us to blend in, but we should try. No need to advertise we don't belong here. They'll figure it out soon enough without us marching in there dressed as we are."

We changed quickly, Lucy and I in the front of the car and Ronan in the back. He faced the rear wall to give us privacy. I didn't see him sneak a peek even once—not that I watched him change, of course.

All right, I did watch out of the corner of my eye, because I wanted to know who and what he was. I got no hints about his true nature from seeing him mostly undressed, however. His body was human.

I couldn't say I was entirely disappointed in the lack of clues, given the visual treat of Ronan sans clothes. My heart belonged entirely to Sean, but there was no harm appreciating a work of art—and Ronan was most assuredly a work of art. Had he been on the train with us, Malcolm might have discorporated on the spot.

Like Lucy, who changed with the quickness and efficiency of a trained soldier, Ronan stripped down to his shorts in record time, despite his layers of clothing and gear. His body was all muscle and covered with scars, neither of which was a surprise. Bounty hunting was a dangerous occupation.

I was fairly certain he was aware I was watching. Something about his posture made me think he was smiling to himself and taking his time re-dressing, the gorgeous bastard.

The fact our clothes fit us each perfectly didn't surprise me in the least. As the others arranged their weapons under their robes, which appeared to have strategically placed slits allowing blades to be drawn quickly and easily, I stashed a few items of my own on my person and in the robe. My clothes seemed to have been designed for a mage, who would need to have various blades and objects close at hand.

"Thanks, Charon," I murmured.

The train made a tiny jostle. I liked to think that was Charon saying, You're welcome.

By the time the train slowed on approach to the rocky beach and a section of the wall out of sight of the main gate—and the dragon perched nearby, thankfully—we were all redressed.

Ronan took his magic rope from his bag. "There are no wolves in Edis," he said to Daisy. "Certainly none wandering alone. But if you appear to be my property, you will gain less attention."

Daisy curled her lip to show teeth.

I didn't like the idea of Ronan tying that rope around my wolf, especially when I didn't know what it could do, or what he was. "Can't she be my property?" I asked. "Why yours?"

"I'm somewhat known in Edis, and my aura is clearly not human," he said. "Most of the inhabitants of the city won't want to start trouble with me. You and Lucy can avoid being noticed with masking and Look Away spells, but if you've got a wolf on a leash, you will attract attention—especially the kind we don't want. I give you my word Daisy can escape the rope if she chooses to do so."

"How the hell did you know I have masking and Look Away spells?" I demanded.

"The same way I knew everything else," he said, which wasn't exactly an answer. "Yes or no on the rope?"

Damn it. "Daisy, it's up to you," I told my wolf. "Do you trust him to do this?"

Her lip still curled so we knew she wasn't happy, Daisy went to Ronan's side and allowed him to tie the rope around her front legs and shoulders again. The rope transformed into a brown leather harness with nasty-looking spikes on the shoulders and a long leash that looped around Ronan's arm.

"Where did you get that rope?" I asked him.

"Bought it from a fae," he said. It could have been true.

"What about Esme?" I picked up my cat-dragon and settled her on my shoulder.

"Dragons of all kinds are not unusual here." Ronan put his bag on his shoulders and sheathed his sword on his back. "A pū?is is less common than her larger cousins, but no one will question that you have one. They will know she's bound to you as your protector."

A thought occurred to me. "Will we get to take the train back to the doorway when it's all said and done?"

Ronan glanced toward the front of the train. "I certainly hope that is the case. I will then owe our ferryman a favor."

The car jostled slightly again. I hoped that was an acknowledgement from Charon.

We were now close to the wall. From a distance, Edis had appeared enormous. Up close, the walls seemed to reach the sky. The city could not look more forbidding if it tried.

The train slowed to a crawl as it snaked along the rocky beach, then stopped. The door slid open. A blast of heat nearly took my breath away. No way in hell we'd be able to cross that lava plain without someone's help. I put those concerns aside for now. One hurdle at a time.

Ronan and Daisy got out first. With my pack on my back and Esme balanced on my shoulder, I let Ronan give me a hand to step out onto the rocky beach. Lucy disembarked last.

We made our way carefully up the steep incline toward the wall. I started sweating immediately. Daisy panted. Lucy coughed. Ronan alone seemed unaffected by the extreme heat.

As soon as we were clear of the train, it accelerated away, banking sharply and heading back across the lava toward the very distant horizon. Thunder rumbled and purple lightning flashed across the sky, which was black and streaked with red. The ground shook, dislodging small rocks that rolled down the hill and caused me to stumble.

Ronan spread his hands. "Welcome to Edis."

"At least it's a dry heat," Lucy said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. "You sure this isn't Hell?"

"Very sure." Ronan and Daisy led the way up the hill toward the wall. Lucy stayed on our six, sword in hand as she scanned our surroundings for potential threats. I envied how easily they climbed, while I huffed and puffed and panted and stumbled over the rocks. Neither of them offered to help, which I simultaneously appreciated and resented. Being a prideful human was complicated.

When we reached the wall, Ronan led us along its perimeter for about a hundred feet until we found a large rock against the stone wall. On the other side of the rock, hidden from view until we were right in front of it, a long, deep crack ran up the wall, forming a dark tunnel. Cool air drifted out, along with the unmistakable urban sounds of conversation, strange music, and wheels rattling on stone.

Lucy raised her eyebrow. "A secret passageway? Seems too easy."

"Those who run Edis understand the importance of smuggling to the city's economy." Ronan raised his hand and used his ball of light to illuminate the empty passageway. "These tunnels are for commerce. They're the city's most well-known secret. Getting in is rarely a problem. Getting out…now that's usually a lot more difficult."

"Fantastic," I said. "Well, then let's get in there and find some Furies, shall we?"